I am an enthusiastic roaster of meats and stewer of stews, but tackling dessert—that can make me feel five years old again, struggling sulkily to color within the lines. In my view, the calm studiousness of baking, with its reliance on written formulas rather than intuition, pales in comparison with the pleasurable anarchy of savory cooking.

That all changes, I have come to realize, when sweets move into the backyard. Outdoor grills are wonderful tools for dessert, beginning with the freedom they offer from the confines of a stifling kitchen. For adventure-seekers like me, cooking on a grill injects just enough chaos into the dessert equation; it calls for more reliance on the senses than on precise measurements.

"You have to be absolutely engaged when you're cooking with fire, because it's changing all the time," said Russell Moore, the chef and owner of Camino restaurant in Oakland, Calif., where all the cooking centers around a large fireplace and a wood-burning oven. "You have to adjust your pans, you have to adjust your fire. There is no closed oven door: You can see everything as it happens. It feels very immediate."

When it comes to dessert, Mr. Moore might grill cakes and serve them with plain fruit, or char fig leaves and use them to infuse ice cream. During stone-fruit season, he likes to split open peaches and grill them over a gentle fire, then serve them drizzled with a quick syrup made by simmering the fruits' pits in water along with basil or mint.

Questions of process aside, the grill also holds vast potential from a flavor perspective. The earthy taste of smoke and pleasant bitterness of char suit a peach as much as they do a pork loin, providing an unexpected counterpoint to sweetness.

For Chrysta Poulos, pastry chef at the recently opened King + Duke in Atlanta, where the menu is oriented around a 24-foot wood-burning hearth, adapting to live fire has been a revelation. She has begun making lemon curd by slicing the fruits in half and charring them black, then juicing them. Ms. Poulos gently smokes cherries and serves them with black forest cake, kirsch cream and black-pepper ice cream. "There's no substitute for real wood smoke," said Ms. Poulos. "And the char you get in a skillet is nothing like the char of a grill."

Ms. Poulos and Mr. Moore agree that there are practically no limitations; anything from poundcake to pineapple can benefit from time on the grill. Items too small to rest right on the grate—berries, for instance—can be cooked in a raft of aluminum foil. Sauces and compotes can be made in pots perched over the heat.

As a rule, avoid very hot grills when cooking sweets, as the sugar-laden exterior may burn before the center is warmed through; you want to push the caramelization as far as you can without tipping all the way over into blackened bitterness. Low to moderate temperatures allow for a beautiful char and uniform cooking. This also makes for a pleasant symbiosis between the sweet and savory phases of the meal: Once the steaks and sausages have had their turn on the grill, dessert makes use of the remaining coals' waning heat.

What to Do

1. In a small saucepan set over a hot grill, bring cream, ½ cup sugar, corn syrup and black pepper to a boil. Remove from heat, cover and let mixture steep 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk gelatin into milk and set aside to rest.

2. Place saucepan back on grill and bring steeped cream to a simmer. Whisk in gelatin mixture and vanilla extract until well combined, 1 minute. Strain and divide between six 4-ounce ramekins. Refrigerate until set, at least 4 hours.

3. In a bowl, toss cherries with salt and remaining sugar. Transfer to a large sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil, and make an open raft by gathering together and folding at both ends. Place foil raft on a medium-cool grill and close the lid. Cook, checking every few minutes, until cherries are warm, softened and taste faintly of smoke, 10-20 minutes. Remove from grill and set aside to cool.

4. Turn panna cottas out of ramekins onto 6 plates and top each with cherries and their liquid. Grate chocolate over top, and serve.

—Adapted from Chrysta Poulos, King + Duke, Atlanta

Grilled Apricot Parfait

Total Time: 30 minutes Serves: 6

Ingredients

14 ripe apricots, peaches, nectarines or pluots, halved lengthwise

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Salt

1 tablespoon brandy (optional)

3 tablespoons honey

2 cups heavy cream, cold

2 tablespoons sugar

What to Do

1. Brush cut sides of apricot halves with melted butter and sprinkle with salt. Place cut-side down on a medium-hot grill and cook, flipping once, until lightly charred, about 4 minutes per side. Use a metal spatula to remove apricots from grill. Set aside and let cool.

2. Roughly chop 1/3 of apricots and set the rest aside. In a bowl, mix chopped apricots with brandy and 1 tablespoon honey. Set aside. In a separate bowl, mix reserved apricot halves with remaining honey.

3. Whisking by hand or using an electric mixer, whip together cream and sugar to form stiff peaks. Gently fold in chopped apricot mixture.

4. Serve in parfait glasses or large wine glasses, alternating layers of apricot-cream mixture with grilled apricot halves until all ingredients are used.

—Adapted from Russell Moore, Camino, Oakland, Calif.

Grilled Ice Cream Sandwiches With Blueberry Compote

Total Time: 30 minutes Serves: 4

Ingredients

2 cups fresh blueberries

1 tablespoon water

2 tablespoons sugar

Pinch of salt

Squeeze of fresh lemon juice

Eight ¾-inch-thick slices of

brioche bread

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1 pint vanilla ice cream

What to Do

1. In a small saucepan set over a hot grill, whisk together ½ cup blueberries, water, 1 tablespoon sugar and salt until blueberries break down into a sauce, about 5 minutes.

2. Add remaining blueberries and cook, whisking occasionally, until fruit breaks down and compote thickens, 10 minutes. Remove from heat and add remaining sugar and lemon juice, adding more to taste if needed. Set aside and let cool.

3. Brush both sides of brioche slices with melted butter. Place brioche on a medium-hot grill until charred, 2-3 minutes per side.

4. To serve, top half the brioche slices with 1 scoop of ice cream, a spoonful of blueberry compote and remaining brioche slices. Serve immediately.

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